Re: cam-election It's all over

Ian Nimmo-Smith (ian.nimmo-smith@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk)
Tue, 6 May 1997 12:38:06 +0100 (BST)

It's quite interesting to compare the different splits of votes in
Cambridge for the Parliamentary and County Council elections (totalling
across the 12 County divisions in the Cambridge constituency).

Labour Tory LibDem Green Refer Others TOTAL

Local 20947 12539 18311 362 52159

General 27436 13299 8287 654 1282 401 51359

The Tory vote looks fairly stable, largest movement seems to be from
Lib Dem (local) to Labour (general).

Perhaps the lesson that 'The Tories Cannot Win in Cambridge' can be
drawn?

I surmise that Labour knew this from their canvassing, but persisted
with a classic third party squeeze campaign: 'It's a Two-Horse Race',
'Only Labour Can Beat the Tories'. They even went to the lengths of
sending out official looking 'Liberal Democrat voting for Anne
Campbell' posters printed in the Liberal Democrats typeface on gold
paper to encourage split voting. Yuk!

Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith
West Chesterton Liberal Democrats
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